JOE RICE A Life in ART (1918 - 2011)
  • JOE RICE
    • about
    • additional photographs
  • BOOK
  • paintings
    • hard-edge >
      • what is hard-edge?
    • nudes
    • self portraits
    • portraits
    • landscapes/flowers
    • early/abstract/other
  • ceramics
  • jewelry
  • sketches
    • sketches with paintings
    • hard-edge sketches
  • the green man

Girl on a Green Chair - Painting of the Month

5/23/2017

 
Picture
Girl on a Green Chair, Joe Rice, 1960s, Acrylic on Canvas, 48x52
My father said she was his favorite, the painting I call Girl on a Green Chair. He painted her for a class at the San Francisco Art Institute and recalled that the professor complemented him on the composition and colors. It's long been one of my favorites too. For the misty orange fading to sky-blue backdrop, the soft side sweep of her brown hair and the mystery of a girl looking away. 

She hung in our San Francisco living room in the 60s. In a photo from back then, my younger sister looks to be perhaps seven, meaning the painting dates from 1965 or earlier still. When we moved to Mill Valley, it hung in the eating area beside the kitchen, where we took all our meals on the pigskin table and chairs from Mexico. After our parents divorced, Dad moved to Sonoma with his second wife and hung the Girl on a Green Chair in the identical location, above the kitchen table, where she remained until his death in 2011.

I assume the painting is in Maryland now, where our step-mother moved after he passed. It's unlikely I'll see her or the painting again. But I do have this photograph. It was my father's favorite and one of mine, a part of my childhood, a part of my life.
Picture
Dad, Mom & Juliet, circa 1965, Girl on a Green Chair on the wall
    The Green Man
    Joe Rice remembered

    Rice was a little-known artist. By choice. 
    The Green Man is a self-portrait  from the 1960s. It's a pretty good likeness. Rice was an artist first, a father, teacher and whatever else, after that. He was also inventive, dogged, abidingly humble, and, in his own quiet way, an inspiration to those who knew him. ​

    Dorothy Rice writes things
    . Her first book, The Reluctant Artist: Joe Rice (1918-2011) is an art book/memoir about her father, Joe Rice, whose lifelong dedication to his art, with no interest in finding an audience, both inspires and mystifies. Visit her author website here.
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.